


Reflection

by admiralty



Series: Culmination [2]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s11e04 The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 14:39:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15026849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/admiralty/pseuds/admiralty
Summary: Mulder and Scully have their first "date." Set during the events of S11 ep 4 "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat." Part of Culmination (Extras).





	Reflection

 

**_REFLECTION_ **

 

**SCULLY**

**(The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat)**

 

 

 

“Come on. It’ll be like a date.”

He grins at her, leaning back far in his chair, wiggling his eyebrows in that way that makes her melt a little bit. Like she used to, when all of this was so new. She can’t stop the reaction she knows is coming and her own eyebrow ascends.

It’s muscle memory, with Mulder. It always has been.

She can’t help but think back to a week ago when they’d resuscitated some other muscle memories she’d tried to forget. It all felt so good, and she’s happier than she’s been in years. She knows why. She always knew it would come to this again, at some point. Him again. He’s like oxygen: a breath she exhaled, but needs back to survive. She can’t stay away.

“ _Like_ a date, Mulder?” she smiles. “Or an _actual_ date?” She’s leaned back in his chair, feet up on the desk. In charge. She knows he likes her that way.

“It’s a date if you want it to be a date. Whatever you want, Scully, I’m game.”

She smiles, allowing herself to engage in his flirtations. He hasn’t exactly been subtle lately, and she’s noticed. She's almost entirely welcomed his overtures over the past few weeks, and after Henrico County and all that entailed she can hardly play hard to get now. Even though she’s not ready to get back to where they were quite yet, she’s enjoying this preamble.

It feels like a courtship, the courtship they never really got to have the first time around. They never really “dated” before. It had been seven years of excruciating slow burn that jumped directly into a sexual relationship, and after those short precious weeks before he was abducted everything seemed to fast forward into seriousness. They never really had the chance to enjoy this particular game.

It seems like he wants to do it this way now. She’s open to his methods, as always. Starting over with him may very well mean truly starting over, and she’s intrigued.

“Was last night supposed to be a date? Because that didn’t go so well,” she points out.

He balks. “I was too distracted last night, with the whole… you know. Twilight Zone thing.”

“You’re not still distracted?”

He sits forward and puts his feet on the ground. “You’re a little distracting right now.” He picks up a pencil off the desk and taps it a couple times against her black pump’s impossibly narrow stiletto heel.

“Okay then, Mulder. What did you have in mind?”

He leans back in his chair again, smiling, and looks her directly in the eye.

“ _Well._ ”

She’d be lying if she claimed she wasn’t eagerly anticipating the sequel to  _No Room at the Inn, starring Scully and Mulder_. But she rolls her eyes and deflects. She wants to see what else he’s got up his sleeve.

“Other than that, Mulder.”

“Oh. Well, let’s go meet up with this sweaty forehead guy first. Then, you know… see where the evening takes us.”

She raises an eyebrow at him. “You owe me dinner, you know.”

“I do know. We will. I promise I’ll make it worthwhile. Romantic and everything.”

 

***

 

The parking garage is quiet, as usual. Inside their car she feels safe, private, as if they are in their own tiny cocoon. It’s a world they’ve inhabited time and time again over the years. The two of them alone in a car, waiting for... something. 

“How much longer are we going to sit here?”

“Scully, how many times have we done this? And for much longer, I might add.” He cracks a sunflower seed shell between his teeth and throws it out the car window. “I’ve never seen you so impatient.”

“Well, I’m hungry. And those other times we were getting paid, at least.” She leans back into the headrest.

He sticks his bottom lip out in a small pout and nods, acknowledging this point. He offers her his bag of seeds and she shakes her head. “True. But all those times there wasn’t this… _thickness_ in the air. Heat. That crazy sexual tension. Can you feel that?”

She tilts her head over to look at him. He’s got that look, like a predator eyeing its prey. It’s all the more suggestive as he rolls a seed around inside his mouth.

“I beg to differ, Mulder,” she replies. “The heat was always there.”

He chuckles and turns back toward the windshield, tossing another shell out the window and putting the bag into the cup holder. “Yeah, it was. You’re right about that.”

“I’m finally right about something? Thank God.”

“Scully. You were right about a lot of things. Come on.”

She smirks at him. “Not when you were around, Mulder. You attract the paranormal like flowers attract bees.”

“Please never mention bees again.”

“It’s true, though.”

“Well, that’s not really fair. We sought that stuff out. We looked for it. It’s easier to find something when you’re looking for it.” He looks at her for a moment. “I found that out the hard way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you. You and me.”

She takes this in, then smiles. It’s almost a joke between them at this point, how silly they’d both been, how much time they’d wasted not looking for what was right in front of them.

“You’re right. I’ll give you that one, since it _is_ very romantic. And I was promised romance.”

“I think all those stakeouts were romantic. Even way back in the day.”

She scoffs. “You mean the ones where the car smelled like death from the massive collection of half-eaten sandwiches? Or the ones where you forgot to use the bathroom beforehand and I had to physically restrain you from using an empty bottle in my presence?” He’s laughing now. “Spending hours upon hours playing I Spy or talking about UFO sightings?” She shakes her head, the memories coming back in waves. Most of them good, regardless of her attitude.

“Well… yeah,” he says. “All of it.”

“ _All_ of it?”

He shrugs. “We were together, weren’t we?”

She turns to look at him. Her Mulder. He really can be sweet when he wants to be. She smiles, knowing he’s right, yet again. It was always romantic, even when they didn’t realize it.

She marvels at this creature sitting in the car with her. It’s confusing because there’s nothing here she hasn’t seen already. And yet… something feels different. She wants to chalk it up to all the time that’s passed since they’ve actually been a couple, but for some reason she can’t. It’s just… him, plus something. Mulder two-point-oh.

He is quiet for a beat. His next question is soft, serious.

“Can I hold your hand, Scully?”

The request throws her. It’s so sweet, so innocent. He always holds her hand, he never has to ask. But this time he’s making no presumptions, like it’s a real first date. It’s all the more astonishing considering they both know full well he was inside her multiple times last week.

“Yes, of course you can, Mulder.” She reaches for his hand and finds it, interlocking their fingers. She suddenly has a strong sense that there’s nowhere on the planet she’d rather be than here in this car right now, in the FBI parking garage, holding hands with him. It’s a powerful feeling, and one she’s needed to feel.

She wants to kiss him, badly. She knows it shouldn’t be a big deal, but he’s made her nervous now. If he’s trying to make this feel like a real first date, he’s succeeded. They have always done everything slowly almost to the point of backwards, and it feels somewhat normal for her to have butterflies in her stomach.

Luckily he seems to have reacquired his mind reading skills and leans in.

His lips are soft and salty, familiar, like a habit. She’s having a hard time remembering the reasons she broke the habit in the first place. This kiss is by no means a first for them, but it still feels new somehow; he’s made it feel that way. This time it’s not about release, or reconnection. It’s about starting over again, really starting over.

_You know what you’re doing._

Her hand instinctively goes to the back of his neck, and she can sense the kiss is about to deepen. It’s such a simple thing but when it comes to the two of them it always feels so incredibly big.

_*knock knock knock*_

The sound startles them both and they pull apart, looking around, maybe for the sweaty guy? But it’s the face of AD Skinner, looking through Scully’s window at them.

“Is that official FBI business?” His voice is muffled through the window.

Mortified, she turns to Mulder who looks incredibly pissed off. His face is so hilarious she can’t help but stifle a laugh, and she turns back around to look at their boss. Nothing can account for the enormous grin on his face, which she so rarely sees she can’t help but betray a tiny smile.

“Carry on. You’re off the clock.” He taps the window again and turns, striding away with his briefcase.

“I’m going to kill him. Where did I put my gun?” Mulder leans behind his seat and reaches to the floor behind him, feigning a search.

She’s a little disappointed Skinner completely killed the mood but is comforted by his reaction nonetheless. He seemed happy to see what he saw. Maybe he’s been rooting for them. It’s kind of sweet.

As if on cue, two more people enter the parking garage, crossing their field of vision. They don’t pay them any mind or even notice them sitting there, but the privacy she’d felt confident of only a minute before seems to have evaporated along with the atmosphere.

“Mulder, I don’t think this guy is going to show. Can we go eat now, please?”

“Let’s give him just a few more minutes, okay?”

A car alarm blares through the garage, and the _thickness_ Mulder referred to only a few moments ago is now just stale air. Suddenly she’s annoyed to be sitting here and just wants to leave. The car alarm ceases. She shifts in her seat. They sit there quietly, staring out the window.

“Well, this is romantic,” she grumbles.

“Isn’t it?” He turns to her, smiling delightedly again. She can feel his smile, it’s contagious. He can always find the good in the most mundane situations.

But, he’s right, as usual. It is romantic, because they’re together.

 

***

 

“I’m Fox freakin’ Mulder, you punks! I’m Fox Mulder! _Fox Mulder!”_

Scully grabs him by the arm and pulls him back. “Mulder, leave it alone.”

“Those morons don’t know what they’re talking about, Scully. Pisses me off.”

“Well you know that, and I know that. Don’t worry about them.”

He turns to look at her. “I’ve never even seen them before. I don’t think they’re really FBI.”

She shrugs. “The way this evening has been going, nothing would surprise me.”

“I’m sorry Scully, you wanna go eat?”

She shakes her head. “Not really. I’ve gone from hungry to starving to distracted to completely losing my appetite. Besides, it’s too late now.” She looks at her watch. “We must have been talking to Reggie longer than I thought. It’s almost eleven, Mulder.”

“Well, shit. I promised you a date, though.”

She grins at him. “It was, kind of. For us, at least. A stakeout, an X File. Even Skinner showed up.”

“And there _was_ a kiss.”

“And you held my hand.”

He smiles. “So… it was a great date.”

“Don’t get carried away, Mulder.”

She looks toward the car. They’d carpooled that day since she’d stayed at the house the night before, but she decides she wants to be by herself tonight.

“I’m gonna head back to my place tonight, okay? I’ll call an Uber. You can take the car.”

“You sure, Scully?” He looks a little disappointed.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” She steps over to him. “Thanks for the date, Mulder.” With one hand on his left cheek, she rises up onto her tiptoes and kisses his right.

“Can we try again tomorrow?” he asks.

“Okay. Assuming Reggie doesn’t interfere again.”

“Can we try something else again?”

“What?”

He pulls her in by the waist and presses his lips to hers, his free hand going to her cheek, his thumb softly circling her temple. She closes her eyes and relaxes into the moment, placing her hands on his chest, but doesn’t let it go on too long. She’s determined not to give in so easily.

She pulls back slowly, her teeth gently pulling his bottom lip a bit before releasing it. His eyes are closed and his jaw is slack.

He stares at her, mouth still slightly open. “You are _cruel_ , Scully.”

She smiles and tugs on his tie a bit. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mulder.”

 

***

 

“I want to remember how it all was.”

She looks him right in the eye and knows he knows what she means. Goop-o ABC, him, her, them.

_All of it._

They’d finally had dinner together, real dinner, and were now sitting together quietly on the couch, smiling and looking at each other. Sometimes it’s all they need. So far, so good. Eventually Mulder breaks the silence.

 _“_ You know, all this talk of parallel universes has got me thinking, Scully.” He settles back into the couch.

“Shocking.”

“No, hear me out. What if there were some theoretical parallel universe where you and I never knew each other at all?”

“That’s not a universe I’d be interested in.”

“Me neither. But if there were, how different would both of us be individually? Would you even still be you? Would I still be me?”

She mulls this over. The implications, while interesting, are a bit frightening.

“Well, that would mean we changed each other, as people. Do you really think that’s the case?”

“In a way, yes. I can sit here and say definitively that I’m a different man now than I would be had I never met you.”

“In what way?”

“You don’t think I’ve changed? From that guy you met all those years ago?”

He’s right, he has changed. But not fundamentally. He hasn’t changed the things she loved about him in the first place. He just seems to have a new way of showing himself. There’s a reserve she never saw before, a filter. She wants to say a maturity, which she knows sounds terrible even though it’s probably the truth.

“I suppose you have changed. But who’s to say that’s because of me? You’re still Mulder. You’re still _my_ Mulder. That hasn’t changed a bit.”

“Still crazy after all these years?”

She smiles. “You’re the only person I know who would put on a Sasquatch costume and head out into the wilderness to get _away_ from the madness.”

He laughs. “It’s not a Sasquatch costume, Scully. It’s camouflage.”

“Whatever it is. It’s not normal.”

He reaches out to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“It’s my normal.”

She sighs and leans back into the couch. “Yeah. I’ll agree with you there. If I’d never met you my life would be a lot more _normal.”_ Off his slightly hurt expression, “...But it would also definitely be a lot less interesting.”

He smiles at this.

“I like your normal, Mulder. It’s become mine.”

“I love you, you know.” His words don’t surprise her, but the last time he said them to her she was breaking his heart. She doesn’t want to picture that face right now. She hated that face.

“I know you do. I love you too.”

It’s the truth, and it always has been. It isn’t hard to say. She has no reason to lie to him. All the pieces of this particular puzzle are here, it’s just a matter of maneuvering them into a picture they both want to see. She isn’t sure how they’re going to do that but she has hope.

“I’m starting to see what you meant when you were talking about ‘all of it’ earlier,” she continues.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. All of it was special. All of it made us who we are. And all of it led us here, tonight.”

“Even the bad stuff?”

“Yes, even that. The cherry flavor _and_ the leprechaun taint.”

He nods, laughs. She can tell he wants to keep it serious, however. “Even when things were bad, I did always love you. I always had that.”

She feels warmth rising up inside her, and an overwhelming amazement that he can continue to surprise her like this after so long.

“When did you become an optimist, Mulder?”

He sighs. “Well, Scully, when you walked away I guess I realized I had nothing left to lose.”

She knows he isn’t trying to make her feel bad. Leaving him wasn’t a mistake. Things had gotten impossible, and she firmly believes they both needed that space to get to this place, a place where they can try again. But she can’t stand the idea that she hurt him. She couldn’t stand it then and she can’t stand it now.

She doesn’t really know the right words anymore so she takes his hand in hers and leans into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Hey,” he says after a minute.

“Hey.”

“You know, you were right again tonight. About the Lost Martian conundrum.”

“I was, wasn’t I?” she grins.

“See? I told you you could be right. Sometimes.”

She laughs, and snuggles into him a bit.

“You sure you want to let this Goop-o foot go to waste?” he asks.

“I’m sure.”

“You know, back when you were gone? That was the leprechaun taint of my life.”

“How very poignant, Mulder.”

He brings her hand to his lips and kisses it.

“I’ll take it, though, if it gets me to back to the good stuff.”

She just smiles and closes her eyes, capturing the moment. The good stuff.

This, she wants to remember.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Part of a larger work: [Culmination](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14748734/chapters/34100159)


End file.
